✓ | The Crown of the Dead

A Crown, a Camcorder, and a Key

Cabin thirteen. Hades. God of the underworld. 

It wasn't hard to find— a massive black building just off where the twelve main cabins were located. The steps up were large. The blinds were drawn. Nothing about it really caught my eye... other than the fact that a girl was sitting on the front steps, vigorously writing on a piece of paper.

"Oh!" I said with surprise.

She looked up at me, and I realized it was the same girl from the arts and crafts building— Andromeda.

"Sorry," I muttered. "I didn't mean to intrude."

"No no!" She said quickly, standing up from the step. "I was just," she held up her paper. "Writing some numbers down."

"Numbers?" I questioned.

She regarded me carefully. "Yeah... just doing some... math. That's it."

"It's summer," I said with a laugh. "Why would you wanna do math?"

"Umm... just a project I'm working on. It's about my family history."

I didn't know what math had to do with family history, but I didn't wanna question it.

"That's cool. I'm Bianca. Andromeda right?"

She recoiled. "How do you know my name?"

"Sorry..." I said, my cheeks growing hot. "I saw you when I first got here. Layla said your name."

"Oh. That's my cousin. I've known her all my life— she's absolutely intolerable."

I snickered.

She took a deep breath in. "Well, nice to meet you Bianca."

"Nice to meet you as well."

Andromeda smiled. "Sorry I was in your way. I'll be going now."

"Goodbye!"

She had already hurried out of sight, wispy blonde hair billowing behind her.

I turned to the door and planted my hand on the knob. I wasn't sure why I was making such a big deal out of this whole thing. Blake said himself that I most likely wouldn't be able to find anything. Still, I took a few breaths. Then, I turned the knob.

The Hades cabin wasn't like the Apollo cabin. It was bigger for one, and it didn't have a bunch of bunks like cabin seven. Just one large canopy bed, carefully made with a black comforter and white sheets. There was a dresser, a bedside table, and a closet. It was dark. There weren't any flying rats, or flying cockroaches for that matter.

There was a stack of books on the nightstand, and I decided to go over and investigate it. There wasn't really anything odd about it, other than a silver key that sat on the top. I picked it up and decided to pocket it, right next to the key Mr. G had given me the previous morning.

I sat down on the bed. It was big and comfortable, the pillows soft. I wondered why nothing in the cabin was covered in dust. It didn't seem like the cleaning harpies had come in here anytime recently, considering everything was still in place.

I looked at the closet from my position on the bed. I hopped off and decided I couldn't do any harm by looking in it.

It opened easily, without me even turning the handle. Some jackets hung on hangers up top, and on the bottom was a file box full of random items. I wrinkled my nose. The closet smelled musty, long unopened and dank. I ran my finger across a shelf at the top of the closet, pulling it back to inspect the dust that had transferred onto the tip of it. Okay. Nevermind about nothing being covered in dust.